GROVEPORT, Ohio — “It’s all just been very frustrating,” Jamie Sams said.
Sams is a single mother. Her two children are in sixth and fifth grades in Groveport Madison Schools.
She sympathizes with other districts that are facing similar situations and recognizes it comes at an inopportune time during a pandemic.
“I completely understand,” she said. “I’m not mad at the bus drivers. I’m not frustrated with them. My frustration lies in the communication.”
She says the school district has sent text messages throughout the year saying her children’s bus is going to be an hour late. Two messages came just this week on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. The bus is normally scheduled for pick up at 8:30 a.m. Sams, who was working an hour-and-a-half away in Kettering, says she usually left the house by 6:00 am.
“I was literally walking out the door to go to work [and I was] being notified that my child’s bus wouldn’t be arriving until 9:30,” she said.
Sams says even though there are delays the school still opens and runs on schedule, which means her children are missing instruction. After posting on Facebook other parents chimed in and echoed Sams’s frustration. She’s an ultrasound technologist and balancing professional and personal lives and taking into consideration her own patients, Sams says she saw no other solution than to find a new job closer to home.
“I had to make sure that I was able to be home to get at least one of my kids somewhere to get a ride to school,” she said.
In a statement to 10TV, the district says despite increasing wages, offering sign-on bonuses and actively promoting job openings, its busing contractor has struggled to secure drivers. The district also says no one is more frustrated by these circumstances than it is.
Groveport Madison says remote learning is a contingency plan, but it is viewed as a solution if there’s not enough staff to operate one or more schools.
The district says as soon as it learns of any routes that are going to be late or covered by other drivers, it immediately sends out text message notices to families.
Statement from Groveport Madison Schools District:
Like most school districts across Ohio – and the nation, Groveport Madison Schools is experiencing a significant shortage of school bus drivers. This has been the case for nearly the entire school year.
Despite increasing wages, offering sign-on bonuses, and more actively promoting job openings, our busing contractor has struggled to secure enough drivers to cover all of our bus routes.
When compounded with absences resulting from COVID-19 exposures and illness, it has been a serious challenge to provide consistent and timely bus service to our students. Among the things we can control is keeping parents informed of delays and routes that are being covered by other buses. We are have worked very hard to send out text messages to ensure parents know when to expect their child’s bus to arrive.
No one is more frustrated by these circumstances than we are. We have been and will continue to explore every available avenue to provide the consistent level of service our students and their families expect and deserve.